The diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease is now often accomplished using vascular delivery apparatus and techniques. Vascular delivery may provide a variety of advantages because access to desired locations within a patient's body may be obtained without the need for general anesthetic or more invasive surgical techniques. Access to peripheral arteries may be accomplished using a sheath having a hemostatic valve that is inserted into the peripheral artery. A catheter or other device can then be introduced into the vasculature of the patient through that sheath to the desired location within the vasculature.
Access for these percutaneous coronary procedures may be obtained through a radial artery of the patient. Access through a radial artery may provide a number of advantages including improved patient mobilization and reduced cost. The use of a distal radial artery may, for example, allow for compression to be directly applied to the artery to achieve and maintain hemostasis.
One potential complication with any arterial access is, however, achieving hemostasis during and/or after a procedure. Arterial blood flow is pulsatile in nature and may present challenges to any practitioner seeking to achieve hemostasis at an arterial access site. Upon completion of a procedure and after removal of a catheter or other device located in the access site, pressure may be applied to the access site to achieve hemostasis and close the access site. Applying pressure at or at a point slightly upstream of the access site is one technique that may be used for achieving hemostasis. In many instances, continuous pressure may be needed to achieve hemostasis at the access site. Although it may be advantageous for the pressure to remain constant, in some instances a reduction in the level of applied pressure may be advantageous after an initially higher level of pressure is applied to the access site. Gradual reduction in the compression pressure may allow blood to flow through the artery of the access site to allow blood to reach tissue downstream from the access site. That blood flowing through the artery can, in some instances, improve clotting to achieve hemostasis without continuing application of compression.